A POPULAR women's group is on the verge of closing after almost 74 years because nobody is prepared to help run it.

Beoley WI has 62 members and a committee of 11 but nobody will volunteer to be secretary or treasurer.

If the position is still the same in January, county advisers will be called in to suspend the group for three years and freeze its bank account.

Outgoing president of three years Barbara Parker said: "We have someone who is prepared to be president but she will only do it if there is a treasurer and secretary.

"We asked the committee and nobody is prepared to step in and none of the members are either. If there's no president, there can be no group."

Members of the WI, which once boasted the youngest members in the country, get together once a month and often go on trips.

Mrs Parker said: "It's so sad. You feel everything is going to go to waste.

"If it does close, it will be missed by so many people, especially the established members who have been attending WI for years.

"We were going to have a big party for our 75th anniversary and we'd already started to plan it."